Japan calls for Crocs redesign after injuries

To their millions of devotees they are the perfect summer accoutrement; to their detractors they are the footwear for people who have abandoned all sense of style. Now Crocs are the target of a stern safety warning issued by the Japanese authorities.

Japan's trade ministry has asked the US manufacturer of the ultra-light plastic clogs to improve the material and design of the footwear following a rash of accidents in which wearers, mainly children, were injured while using escalators.

Victims have suffered broken toes, gashes and bruising after their shoes became trapped between the steps and the side of the escalator.

The ministry has also asked Japan's railways stations and department stores to display warnings about the perils, particularly for small children, of wearing the highly flexible shoes on escalators.

It said that last year Crocs or other lightweight plastic shoes had been involved in 65 accidents between June and November - the height of the Croc-wearing season.

Tests by Japan's National Institute of Technology and Evaluation found that the shoes, made mainly from polyethylene resin, were susceptible to "catching" on escalators and moving walkways.

Crocs, whose headquarters are near Denver, has started improving its shoes in response to concerns in Japan, where it has sold 3.9m pairs.

But the firm said that most of the escalator accidents, which have been recorded in 10 countries including the US, were caused by poor "user riding behaviour" rather than the shoes themselves.

Last year a two-year-old girl wearing rubber clogs had her big toe ripped off in an escalator accident in Singapore.